Agthia Group, a leading Abu Dhabi based food and beverages group has said the company achieved a net profit of Dh38 million ($10.3million) for the first half of the year, an increase of 94 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Agthia said net profit for the second quarter alone reached Dh 19 million, representing an 86 per cent rise during the same period last year and backed by sales of Dh 199 million.
 
For the six months to June 2008, sales grew to Dh385 million from Dh267 million, representing a growth of 44 per cent over the same period last year.

The company’s earnings per share improved to Dh0.126, reflecting a 97 per cent growth compared to a year ago.

Rashid Mubarak Al Hajeri, chairman of Agthia, said: ’We are exceptionally pleased with these strong results for Agthia in the first six months of 2008, especially given the current challenging environment in the global food and beverage industry.”

Ilias Assimakopoulos, chief executive officer of Agthia, added, “We have seen solid growth in sales across segments, alongside improvements in margins that have resulted from a number of decisions that management has taken.’

Results were strong across the businesses despite some very tough trading conditions, particularly the soaring grain prices in the global market. - TradeArabia News Service